How silly are we becoming, anyway? Check this reading list.

Buffalo Wild Wings Refuses To Serve Police Officers Carrying Guns…
"The Manassas Park Patch reports that the employee wouldn’t serve them despite the plain-clothes officers showing him their badges. The server reportedly told the officers that it was a gun-free establishment.
Scott Lupton, general manager of the Manassas Buffalo Wild Wings, apologized for what happened."

Cadbury Boasts Their Easter Eggs Are Now Sharia-Compliant…  "The essence of halal is that any food is forbidden to Muslims if it includes blood, pork, alcohol, the flesh of carnivores or carrion, or comes from an animal which has not been slaughtered in the correct manner, which includes having its throat slit. Food labelled as halal invariably involves the payment of a fee. It does not extend to chocolate but Cadbury lists 71 products which are halal, ranging from Dairy Milk to Freddo frogs to Red Tulip chocolates. The website also states: ”We do not have any kosher-certified products.”"
Emphasis in the original or I would have put it there myself. TD

And the least free state in America, is…  "The researchers calculated in factors ranging from the states’ levels of government spending and debt, tax burden, property rights protection, and health insurance freedom all the way to their policies on alcohol, tobacco, gambling, marriage, and firearms. North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma took the top five freedom spots, while Rhode Island, Hawaii, New Jersey, California, and New York came in 46th through last place." Via Lucianne. 

Time Editor Compares Obama to Nelson Mandela Naturally with the help of MSNBC

A 15-Year -Old Conservative Deals With Bullying From Public School Teachers  Benji Backer writes in this essay

"Unfortunately, experiences I have had with harassment and bullying prove that wrong. This is a timeline of the most extreme cases of harassment and indoctrination I have had in the three different public schools I have attended over the last three years. "

Ho hum, time for yet another 60s-radicals-were-misunderstood film  "The people being given sympathetic treatment in this instance, though, tried to impose their politics by murder, theft, violence, and terror. They’re not “activists,” they’re terrorists and murderers. The fact that Hollywood keeps trying to rehabilitate these people in the post-9/11 world speaks volumes about their values, especially Redford’s."

conservativedailynews

 Lawsuit abuse could choke off medical innovation  "Mike is worried that lawsuits may hamper the medical innovation that allowed him to race again. “Our fear as a family is that lawsuits will choke down the pipeline of innovation,” he says.
"Mike says the goal of the legal system should be balance. “When lawsuits dictate what companies can do and what products they develop, then we are out of balance.”"

Next is an essay on the subject of political correctness of which this excerpt is only a small portion:

Political Correctness  "Political Correctness (PC) is the communal tyranny that erupted in the 1980s. It was a spontaneous declaration that particular ideas, expressions and behaviour, which were then legal, should be forbidden by law, and people who transgressed should be punished. (see Newspeak) It started with a few voices but grew in popularity until it became unwritten and written law within the community. With those who were publicly declared as being not politically correct becoming the object of persecution by the mob, if not prosecution by the state."

 

Finally, for today: What happened to Saturday Morning cartoons?

 

Medicare has stopped paying for diagnostic tests

Are We Aware Yet? "The Obama Administration has stopped paying the bills from hundreds of health care companies, and it has nothing to do with sequestration.

"This is a story of bureaucratic mismanagement at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the harm it’s visiting on the diagnostic testing industry.

"At issue is the way that Medicare reimburses everyone from the big laboratory companies such as the Laboratory Corp of America (LH:NYSE) and Quest Diagnostics Inc. (DGX:NYSE), to the molecular diagnostic labs inside academic hospitals, and especially smaller firms that make proprietary tests used by doctors to more effectively target treatments to patients with conditions like cancer.” "

ObamaCare's effects are not just on patients and doctors, but are beginning to be felt in research and development:
Forbes Magazine states:  "This is having a profound impact on the market for developing new tests. Investors are shunning new investments as this gets sorted out. It says nothing about how these rates are ultimately going to be established, and whether the prices that the government assigns will reflect the value and innovation that these products offer."

Alabama School Bans the Word ‘Easter’

NRO  "Citing “religious diversity conflicts,” Alabama’s WHNT reports that an elementary-school principal has decided to allow teachers and students to hold normal Easter celebrations, but banned the use of the term “Easter.”
"Heritage Elementary School in Madison, Ala., still had an egg hunt and a costumed rabbit last week, but principal Lydia Davenport said neither could be referred to using the word “Easter.” For the hunt, Davenport also produced a compromise, insisting that the contest could go on, but that the prizes had to be of different shapes, rather than just eggs (no word on how much oblong obloquy this decision in particular raised). The celebration still featured a bunny, but Davenport said “we just make sure we don’t say ‘the Easter bunny’ so that we don’t infringe on the rights of others because people relate the Easter bunny to religion.”
"“I don’t get upset about too many things, but this upsets me. What is this world coming to?” one parent wrote in an e-mail. “I am a Christian and proud to announce it. But even non-believers enjoy a good egg hunt. Kids need to enjoy being kids.” "

legalinsurrection.com 

Another source for Civil War buffs

The Gettysburg Magazine  "Published twice a year, The Gettysburg Magazine brings its readers the best material being published on the Gettysburg Campaign of the Civil War. Each issue contains 128 pages with no advertising. Filled with scholarly articles that are well researched and footnoted and supplemented with maps and both period and modern photographs, subscribing to The Gettysburg Magazine is like getting a new book on Gettysburg sent right to your door every January and July."

This will be the year for sources on the Battle of Gettysburg, since this 4th of July will be the 150th anniversary of the pivotal battle as well as the Battle of Vicksburg. In fact, 1863 was perhaps the most eventful year of the entire war and perhaps the bloodiest for American youth.
This May will be the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Chancellorsville, perhaps the most dramatic victory for Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. Lee had total moral domination over General Joseph Hooker and one had only to look at a map of the troop dispositions in the latter part of the battle to see that.

"Flashback: When Democrats Swore They Would Never Back Gay Marriage."

Althouse  "[A] short video composed of the floor speeches some top Democrats made about SSM. At the time, Republicans wanted to block gay marriage in Massachusetts by amending the constitution with an official marriage definition. Democrats argued against that, but they didn't argue in favor of gay marriage. They argued that DOMA made such an amendment unneccessary. They assured people like Rick Santorum that the slippery slope case for gay marriage was bogus." 

The Case for Fewer Primary Debates

allvoices.com

Political Wire  "Former Mitt Romney strategist Stuart Stevens backs the RNC's call for fewer presidential primary debates.

"This debate escalation is somewhere between silly and dumb and serves no public good. We pick a president with three general-election debates but it takes 20 debates to understand that maybe Ron Paul wants to blow up the Federal Reserve? Other important national questions are decided more expediently: it only takes 12 shows for The Bachelorette and The Bachelor to pick a mate."

"The RNC report recommends cutting the number of debates in half and shortening the debating season. That's a good start. But I think we should go further. To improve the quality of the debates and eradicate the commercial toxicity tainting the events, news organizations should get out of the business of sponsoring debates. Let's don't kid ourselves. These 'debates' have become phony entertainment spectacles not serious news events."

But...but the 2012 format worked so well for the Republicans.

Israel's Insightful Cynicism

STRATFOR  "Presently a real underlying worry for Israel appears to be Jordan. Yes, King Abdullah has so far expertly manipulated the growing unrest there, but to speculate about the collapse of the Hashemite dynasty is only prudent. More anarchy. More reason to heed Ariel Sharon's analysis of four decades ago to the effect that Jordan is the real Palestinian state, more so than the West Bank. And because Jordan and Saudi Arabia could conceivably unravel in coming decades, maybe Israel should seek to avoid attacking Iran -- which along with Israel is the only real state between the Mediterranean Sea and the Iranian Plateau. Iran may have a repulsive regime, but its society is probably healthier than most in the Arab world. So there is some hope." Read more: 
 Emphasis added.

60% of M.D.s To Retire Early Because of Obamacare

floppingaces

I know we need to look at statistics with a jaundiced eye* because so many outrageous claims are made to promote liberal causes. This article includes the source of the claims for you to evaluate yourself.

Yid With Lid From the looks of  it there will be a few industries that will have great years because of Obamacare.  Industries such as retirement communities, travel and golf equipment.  At least according to the latest Deloitte survey, which asks physicians feelings about the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The survey suggest that up to 60% of doctors will retire early so they won't have to deal with Obamacare.
....
"The early retirement of Doctors is one of those "unexpected" consequences of Obamacare that was predicted by the bill's opponents. When you combine the fact that there will be fewer doctors with the reality of millions of people added to the medical rolls expect very long waiting times to see a physician in the near future....thank you Obamacare."  The full study here by Jeffrey Dunetz
Hat tip to Jeffrey Dunetz at Conservative Bloggers on Facebook

"Jaundiced eye"  "The phrase "Jaundiced eye" means to looks at something with a prejudiced view, usually in a rather negative or critical manner.
It was thought that people who suffered with jaundice saw everything ini(sic) yellow tones, but evetuallyl(sic) the phrase "jaundiced eye" came to mean a prejudiced view instead."

Good Luck Finding a Doctor under Obamacare  "The health overhaul law expands health insurance to millions more people without significantly increasing the number of physicians or other providers. And Obamacare has exacerbated the physician shortage because many are considering leaving the practice of medicine altogether rather than practice under the dictates of Washington bureaucracies."

Three Years Later, Obamacare Is Even Less Popular  "In 2010, the Democrats rammed Obamacare through Congress in open defiance of public opinion, and an incensed citizenry responded by giving Republicans their biggest gains in the House of Representatives since before World War II.  Now, coinciding with tomorrow’s 3-year anniversary of President Obama’s signing Obamacare into law, new polling suggests that his namesake is now even less popular than it was at the time of its passage."

Cartoon and the following text from Frugal Café 

 Let me get this straight…we have passed a health care plan written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn’t read it but exempts themselves from it, to be signed by a president who also is exempt from it and hasn’t read it and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that’s broke.

 What the hell could possibly go wrong?